Inside Ryan O’Neal and Farrah Fawcett’s rollercoaster love story and his heartbreak after her death from cancer – as actor dies aged 82

Ryan O’Neal who died this Friday at the age of 82came into the limelight for his high-profile personal life as well as his films.

But none of his relationships have captured the public’s imagination as much as his romance with stunning blonde Farrah Fawcett.

Their radiant beauty and megawatt glamor made them a golden couple in the 1980s, but behind the scenes Ryan was fiercely unfaithful, and at one point his daughter even accused him of beating Farrah.

Farrah eventually left him in 1997 after catching him in bed with another woman, but they got back together four years later.

He remained by her side despite her devastating decline. cancerright up until she died in 2009 at the heartbreaking age of just 62.

Now DailyMail.com looks back at the whirlwind love story that, against all odds, lasted for a quarter of a century until death did them part…

Ryan and Farrah began a whirlwind romance in 1979 when her marriage to much older actor Lee Majors was in jeopardy.

By this point, Farrah’s career had completely eclipsed Lee’s, as she became a household name in 1976 with her role on Charlie’s Angels.

That same year, she posed in a skimpy red swimsuit for an iconic poster that was plastered across bedroom walls across America.

Three years later, Ryan set out in pursuit of Farrah, a task made easier by the fact that her marriage to Lee was in steady decline.

Ryan later recalled that Farrah once complained to her husband in his presence: “Lee, remember when we first got married and we were in Nevada and you left me in some cabin and went to a bar?” You told me to undress, go to bed and wait for you, but you never came back.”

In 1979, her marriage to Lee turned sour and Farrah met Ryan, beginning a tumultuous relationship that unfolded under the cloud of his infidelities.

In 1985, they had a son named Redmond, but he began to suffer from serious addictions and mental health problems, to the point that Ryan said Vanity Fair in 2009: “He went through 13 rehabs. He had a terrible life.

Meanwhile, Ryan’s daughter Tatum O’Neal said he “beat” Farrah. “He had a terrible temper and was very violent,” Tatum insisted to Talk magazine.

Farrah herself told TV Guide in the 1990s: “Sometimes Ryan breaks my heart. But he is also responsible for instilling confidence in me.”

Their relationship problems came to a head in 1997 when she caught him in bed with another woman and finally decided to leave him.

Rumors about her substance problems also resurfaced in 1997 when she appeared on David Letterman’s show sounding strange and out of sorts.

At the time, she vehemently denied that she had a drug problem, and years later Ryan showed her some loyalty by coming to her defense on the issue.

“She didn’t need substances,” Ryan insisted. “I couldn’t even get her to smoke a joint. I was a drug addict; she is one of those people who brushes her teeth every night and takes care of herself. When I saw her on Letterman, I thought she was acting.”

Farrah went on Letterman to promote her latest Playboy cover, and Ryan explained that “she thought she was acting like a playmate.”

She reunited with Ryan in 2001 and continued acting into the 2000s, but her career was cut short by two brutal bouts with anal cancer.

Farrah was diagnosed with the disease in 2006 and went into remission by 2007, but it recurred and metastasized later that year.

Declining a colostomy, she flew to Germany to find out what her friend had told her. People there were “alternative treatments banned in the US”

Farrah and her friend Alana Stewart filmed her grueling final battle with the disease for a documentary that aired just a month before her death.

When Farrah succumbed to the disease in June 2009, her death was ignominiously overshadowed by the death of Michael Jackson the same week.

Ryan, who remained with Farrah until her death, went to her funeral and flirted with a woman there who he did not recognize as his daughter Tatum.

Ten years after Farrah’s death, Ryan looked back wistfully on their on-off relationship, saying: People: “There wasn’t a day that I didn’t love her.”

In the announcement of Ryan’s death on Friday, his son Patrick wrote: “So this is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to say, but here we go,” he began.

“My father passed away peacefully today and his loving team was by his side, supporting him and loving him the same way he would have loved us.”

O’Neal’s Peyton Place co-star Mia Farrow, 78, shared fond memories of the couple and wrote: “Rest in peace dear Ryan.”

A deputy was last seen helping O’Neill into his car from a wheelchair in Brentwood, California on November 6, 2023. Ryan was driven along the sidewalk and two caretakers placed him in the front seat of the car and lifted him from under his arm.

O’Neal was best known for his 1970s films, including Paper Moon, which starred his daughter Tatum O’Neal.

He also worked with some of the top female stars of his time, such as Barbra Streisand in What’s Up, Doc, and The Main Event and Marisa Berenson on Barry Lyndon.

In 1970, Ryan was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor for the blockbuster film Love Story starring Ali MacGraw.

Ryan was also known for his high-profile, decades-long relationship with Charlie’s Angels actress Farrah Fawcett; they will never marry.

They were partners from 1979 to 1997 after he stole the bubbly blonde beauty from her husband, Lee Majors from The Six Million Dollar Man.